Doug Atkins Documentary!

#27
#27
brockytop said:
Met Doug when I was 12-13 years old. I could put two fingers—and I have larger hands and fingers—into his size 19 championship ring with ease. He was a massive individual and one helluva football player.
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Doug Atkins had the largest ring size of any NFL Championship ring until Refrigerator Perry. I believe those are still the two largest NFL Championship rings made.
 
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#28
#28
AstonRoyal said:
I never really understand why Doug doesn’t get more love. I mean the guy was so big and athletic I really feel like he could dominate in todays league
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Played a long time ago before games were commonly televised and before sacks were officially tracked. Guy was inducted into every Hall of Fame imaginable and named to every All Time team he has been eligible for, so he got tons of respect in his era.
 
#30
#30
VOLINVONORE said:
When I was a child in Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel posted a picture of Bobby Bringle doing chin-ups on Doug's extended arm during a football practice. I was also in the weight room art Tennessee in the 1957 when Doug and Jack Stroud walked into the room. The weight room was very small compared to todays weight rooms, and those to players almost took up half of the room. I met him in Atlanta when he lived there, but he was pretty much a loner and didn't want much publicity at that time. The football field was where he made his impressions.
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This story reminds me a lot of Jack Lambert. Former steeler, retired into obscurity as a volunteer game warden, HATED media attention (still does).
 
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#33
#33
AstonRoyal said:
I never really understand why Doug doesn’t get more love. I mean the guy was so big and athletic I really feel like he could dominate in todays league
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I definitely think he is one of the few players from yesteryear who could play today and find similar success. 6'-8" and 257 would still be freakish in the NFL today. I imagine he didn't have the same speed, just because he never trained it like they do today. but I imagine he wouldn't be a lot slower on the football field than guys who are running 4.5s now in straight line non game action.
 
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#34
#34
LouderVol said:
I definitely think he is one of the few players from yesteryear who could play today and find similar success. 6'-8" and 257 would still be freakish in the NFL today. I imagine he didn't have the same speed, just because he never trained it like they do today. but I imagine he wouldn't be a lot slower on the football field than guys who are running 4.5s now in straight line non game action.
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Plus Doug had insane hops. He was literally jumping over grown men to get to the QB, which is something you really don't see today.
 
#35
#35
LouderVol said:
I definitely think he is one of the few players from yesteryear who could play today and find similar success. 6'-8" and 257 would still be freakish in the NFL today. I imagine he didn't have the same speed, just because he never trained it like they do today. but I imagine he wouldn't be a lot slower on the football field than guys who are running 4.5s now in straight line non game action.
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People just look as his size (weight) and often try to brush him off as too lanky to play now. First off even at that weight he was immensely strong. Now consider what that huge frame would look like with modern training/nutrition. THEN consider how athletic he actually was. He came to UT on a BB scholarship. The guy could move. As for explosiveness in track he came in 2nd at the 1952 SEC championships with a 6'6" high jump that came in 25th in THE WORLD that year. The guy was simply a unicorn.
 
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